TECH BUZZ ||HOT LABS
TWO;HEADED
PRINTING
NEW ADDITIVE MANUFACTUR;
ING technologies are entering the
market at a rate almost too fast to
track. This month, we visit two labs
developing innovative 3-D printers.
One is working on a flexible system
to eliminate post-processing, while
the other has a unit that produces
printed circuit boards.
THE LAB Rize Inc., in Woburn, Mass. Frank Marangell, president; Eugene Giller, chief technology officer.
OBJECTIVE Produce a 3-D printer that makes photorealistic
color parts with a range of mechanical properties in a single part.
DEVELOPMENT The Rize One printer builds parts that snap off
cleanly from supports and require no post-processing.
MAKING POST;PROCESSING A SNAP
Post-processing is 3-D printing’s dirty secret, Frank Marangell likes to say. Marangell is president of Rize, a startup whose 3-D
printed parts need little or no post-processing.
The problem comes from growing parts layer
by layer. To improve their stability during growth,
printed parts often include external supports. Even
after cutting the supports away, it may take two or
three hours to smooth a part by sanding or bathing
in a solution.
“In some companies, post-processing is a
production bottleneck,” Marangell said. It is also
expensive, since users are required to manage any
post-production waste in an environmentally safe
manner.
Rize’s founder and chief technology officer,
Eugene Giller, wanted to eliminate that bottleneck.
Giller’s vision was to create a system that would
let users snap clean parts off from their supports.
To reach that goal, Giller and his colleagues had
to develop a 3-D printer, the Rize One, with two
printing heads.
The first head applies a proprietary polyolefin
polymer that resembles ABS, a standard industry
polymer, but costs half as much.
Rize’s printer produces parts that require
no post-processing. Similar technology will
enable it to make earbuds with rigid interiors
and flexible exteriors.
Photo: Rize Inc.
